


Perfidy of the Conifers

by redbluezero



Series: Red's SAO Prideweek 2020 Fics [6]
Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga), ソードアート・オンライン - 川原礫 | Sword Art Online - Kawahara Reki
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Love Confessions, Multi, Polyamory, Post-Wedding, aka kirito asuna and argo have a reception but its so lame, did i make argo broody yes is that ooc no i dont think so, i do reference unital ring but it's so sneaky you won't notice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25908706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redbluezero/pseuds/redbluezero
Summary: Argo sticks around for Kirito and Asuna's "wedding reception" after the events of The Day Before and ends up admitting something huge. Thankfully, the two front liners have a lot more love to share than she anticipated.
Relationships: Hosaka Tomo | Argo/Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito/Yuuki Asuna | Asuna
Series: Red's SAO Prideweek 2020 Fics [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864996
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8
Collections: SAO Pride Week 2020





	Perfidy of the Conifers

**Author's Note:**

> Written for day six - celebration.
> 
> Holy shit, posted with under half an hour left! Yikes!

As soon as Argo let on that she knew about the marriage, she dug her heel into the ground and spun around. She pivoted off of that movement and made a break for it. Her mind grew more and more blank with every rough step she took. That numbness was most likely why she was able to hightail it into the forests— if she’d been thinking with a clear head, she wouldn’t have done something so dangerous. She’d made it past a fair amount of cedar-looking pines when she heard a voice call out to her.

“Argo! Wait!”

It was definitely Kirito. Being a front line player, he had slightly better stats than Argo. It made sense that he’d managed to catch up to her so quickly, despite the fact that quite a few minutes had passed. He grabbed her arm tightly, not caring about whether the system would call him out for doing so or not.

“Kii-bou, what’s this abouT?” she asked irritatedly, shaking him off. She felt a lump in her throat. Perhaps the witch’s debuff spell hadn’t worn off after all.

“You…” Kirito began awkwardly. He glanced backward through the trees, presumably trying to find Asuna, and made an awkward expression. He knitted his brow, put on a small frown, and scrunched his face. After some hesitation, he said,

“You can come over and, uh, celebrate with us, you know?”

Argo didn’t know why she agreed. As an info broker, she’d developed killer intuition. It was the reason she’d run off in the first place; she didn’t want to be a third wheel, especially not when the people she’d be third wheeling for were her crushes.  _ That’s right, I’m no weaklinG! I like Kii-bou and Aa-chan, and I’m not afraid to admit iT,  _ she thought to herself as she followed Kirito through the shrubbery back to the log cabin. Small twigs scraped at her ankles on the way, so she cursed the creators for making  _ Sword Art Online  _ far too realistic— in more ways than one.

As expected, Asuna was waiting patiently for the two of them by sitting on the porch. She’d been idly kicking her legs, letting them dangle over the first step, before she jumped up and ran over to Kirito and Argo.

“Good, you got her! Now let’s go inside,” she exclaimed, clapping her hands together two times. She then grabbed each of them by the arm, wiggling between the two. She pulled them up the steps and through the doorway with an ecstatic smile on her face. There was no furniture, since the house was brand new, so she pointed to an empty spot on the floor. Kirito and Argo understood her cue and sat down, crossing their legs in hopes of making the hard wood a bit more comfortable to rest on.

“Now let me just…” Asuna muttered to herself, opening the window. “Here, the commander gave this to me some time ago after clearing a floor.” She tapped a button and suddenly a large, glass bottle appeared in her arms. She twirled around to face Kirito and Argo and showed it off to them. Almost simultaneously, they shot her disapproving looks.

“Oh, relax, it’s just apple cider. The commander can tell I’m still a minor,” Asuna huffed in response, “I was saving it for a special occasion. Today is  _ definitely  _ special.” Her serene smile glowed in the sunlight that leaked from the back window. That and the warmth of the other girl’s voice made Argo’s heart tingle. Trying to ignore the irritable sensation in her chest, she made grabby hands toward the bottle.

“See, Kirito-kun? Argo gets it,” Asuna teased, “Now let’s open this bad boy up!” She tapped on another part of the menu screen and suddenly the cork in the bottle popped off. She kneeled down and handed it over, then shuffled to sit next to Kirito. Argo stared at the spout of the bottle for a moment. She could faintly make out her reflection— she wasn’t hiding her disappointment very well, huh? Her face was so drab compared to the giddy excitement on Asuna’s and the cool joy on Kirito’s.

She didn’t belong anywhere near them, never had. Argo was the info broker, they were on the front lines. But, no, the division between her and them had existed far before the battle against  _ Sword Art Online  _ had reached its climax. Even two years ago, in the streets of Urbus, they always had more interest in each other than her. Argo had long since accepted that fact, which was mostly the reason she stayed behind on the middle floors to do behind the scenes work.

She just had to pick Floor 22 for that, huh?

“Well, go on, drink it! I want a turn, too,” Asuna insisted. Her eyes, big and bright, pierced right through Argo’s soul. She hid her blush by taking a big swig, using the bottle to cover her face, then passed it to the other girl without looking at her. Asuna happily took it and put her lips to the spout in the same place Argo had.

“Wait, wait, wait, we’re all drinking from the one bottle?” Kirito asked, flustered, “Isn’t that like sharing an indirect kiss?” He leaned forward, staring at Asuna in disbelief as she downed the cider.  _ What a kid, getting worked up over something like thaT,  _ Argo thought to herself, refusing to admit that her heart had skipped a beat when he pointed it out. Meanwhile, Asuna didn’t answer Kirito’s question until she’d had her fill (which was about three gulps) and she had the guts to scold  _ him  _ when she did.

“Of course, Kirito-kun. This is a party, we’re living in the moment! We don’t have time to waste looking for cups,” Asuna explained, only pretending to be irritated. The more red Kirito’s face became, the more she giggled at him, until he finally caved and snatched the bottle from her. He took a sip, yet again from the same place as Argo had, and grumbled,

“Some wedding reception this is.”

Argo smiled ruefully at that. Her heart tingled upon hearing his snarky comeback. That swift sarcasm was one of the many reasons that she liked Kirito, after all. On the other hand, those very words confirmed her suspicions; he and Asuna really  _ had  _ gotten married and bought the log cabin for that reason.

“Argo? Are you okay?” Kirito asked, setting the bottle down onto the floor.

“Ya only just noticed I’m noT? Some friend you arE,” Argo replied, only half jokingly. She  _ was  _ hurt, she couldn’t deny that, just for a different reason.

“Sorry! Is this because of the quest? We knew you hated dogs, but we dragged you along… That was pretty insensitive of us, huh?” Kirito inferred. He hung his head in shame and, next to him, Asuna quickly followed suit. He really was dense, huh?

“That’s not it, idioT! Kii-bou, Aa-chan, when will you realize that I’m in love with the two of yA?!” Argo blurted out in the heat of the moment. She practically snarled at them as she did, though there were tears welling up in her eyes. That was another downside to the virtual world; she couldn’t hold them back no matter how hard she tried. Soon, her vision blurred to the point that she could no longer see the newlyweds.  _ Maybe that’s for the best, thougH. _

“Do… you really mean that, Argo?” Asuna asked softly after a few seconds of silence. Argo didn’t bother to rub her eyes, since she recognized the other girl’s tone of voice. She asked it the same way all of Argo’s female crushes in the past had. She didn’t want to see the face of horror that usually accompanied it. The log cabin went quiet for a second time.

“Come on, Argo, say something,” Kirito mumbled weakly.

“What do you  _ want _ me to saY? That I love ya both equally and haven’t been able to get y’all out of my head these past few yearS? That I’m at least happy because y’all are, especially since you’re happy with each otheR?” Argo yelled back, her strained voice echoing in the almost empty house. Her heart thumped hard in her chest and echoed through her ears to the point where she couldn’t hear anything else anymore.

“We love you, too.”

That, she heard.

“W-WhaT?” Argo asked timidly. Her voice was fragile, scared, and barely squeaked out of her mouth. Her mind had to be playing tricks on her, right? The waves being sent to her brain via the NerveGear had fucked up big time and translated “hate” to “love”, right?

“We may be married to each other now, but we’ve talked about how we both like you, too, before. We were going to ask you to… uh, join? Our relationship? But we couldn’t find you anywhere, almost like you’d been avoiding us. Now we know why,” Kirito elaborated, letting out a weak chuckle near the end. Asuna, holding his hand, nodded in agreement.

“So… If your work as an info broker can take a pause, would you like to stay with us here on Floor 22 for a week or so?” she suggested sincerely. The setting sun beamed on all three of them, highlighting them like a spotlight. It almost seemed like the world they resided in could tell that a special moment was occurring. The three of them liked to think that, at least.

“Yes, yes, a thousand times yeS!” Argo exclaimed, her tears turning into those of joy rather than heartbreak. “Oh, man, imagine if I kept on avoiding you guys for, like, two yearS? I’d never forgive myself, seeing as my feelings have been returneD.” She wiped her tears, laughing as she did so, then reached for the cider bottle again. She raised it high into the air, shook it a bit, and shouted,

“Cheers to uS!”

Kirito and Asuna grinned and pumped their fists instead.

“Cheers!”

So the two weeks of rest passed,  _ Sword Art Online  _ was cleared, and Tomo Hosaka joined the party much earlier than anticipated.

**Author's Note:**

> So, definitely not my best work. I had to get it out before midnight my time, though, so I had to make some sacrifices... Would've finished it the day before (badum tss) but I got hella side tracked. I'm sorry, Argo, I love you but for some reason the Kyoushino brainworms stuck around even two days after I wrote a fic for them! Wah!  
> The title is the only funny thing here, I wanted to name it in accordance to the Progressive chapters and I decided to name it after the genre of song that "Perfidia" is (since the lyrics fit Argo's feelings toward Kirisuna before she realizes they're not unrequited), which is a ballad, but ballad felt too extreme for something with a happy ending! I also wanted to do something with conifers since I spent too much time thinking about those blasted trees for this fic, so I ended up going with Perfidy of the Conifers bc it's 1) technically after a song 2) talks abt how annoying those tree names are 3) has to do w/ Progressive and Floor 22 lolol


End file.
